Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

Interesting - I have gotten sunburns during long car rides. I wear sunscreen every day because if I don't I tend to get red from sitting in front of a window at work each day.

Because I'm always protected from the sun and don't drink milk I take a vitamin D supplement with my calcium supplement twice a day. We'll see if it worked when I'm in my 80s and I break a hip or not!

It is stunning to learn that considerable number of present generation of Indian youth suffer from lack of Vitamin D due to sheer lack sunny outdoor exposure, despite the fact the country is blessed with year around abundant sun light.

The cause is not far to seek. The work place is more often closed artificial and air conditioned environment and professionals working there hardly find time or inclination for exposure to sun light.

Hopefully the spread of knowledge of the important role of sunlight for Vitamin D and its link to a healthy heart, will help changing this dismal situation.

Hi,

7 years ago I had nearly osteoporosis - too low in Vit D3!

Now having taken for years between 2000 and 4000 I.U. of D3 and enough Calcium the situation is more or less normalised.

Look at the work of Vieth, University of Toronto, for basic work on D3! And search pubmed.gov and LEF.org and PCRI.org

We are all descendants of "out of Africa" nomads that had ample sun and did not ? care about skin cancer.

So our color faded the farther north we lived, only by this we may get still insufficient but some D3 that is necessary for survival. The Inuit people did not develop this white skin color as they had ample D3 from their food.

Nowadays everything is mixed: If you get too intense exposition to the sun then you will get black melanoma with a minimum twofold probability. But also 50% reduction in internal cancers which are much more difficult to diagnose. So search your total surface once a month - also the regions that are not exposed to the sun - for suspicious spots: growing above the surface, serrated boundary, bi-color or multicolored, black and fast growing. And if you see something suspicious then act immediately: malignant melanoma is curable with 95% probability is smaller than 2mm but only with 35% probability if 6mm in diameter. And look also out for the slow growing "white" skin-cancers and let these be removed - without hurry.

So: be careful with intense sun, protect your forehead and nose and ears in desert, marine and snow- conditions! Let the other parts of the body sunbathe - so much as to get a slight red tint. Every day! Not really possible, so add Vit D3, it is cheap. And add some artificial sun.

Don't wash or swim after sunbath for an hour, avoid soap and detergents on your body, these will leach the D3 and age your skin.

What about other necessities?: Iodine, Selenium for example?

RHABE

Good points. I find it sort of silly that people want you to put sunscreen even in winter. There is only a small area of skin showing and the sun isn't as intense as it is in the summer. Also, I am rarely outside for extended periods of time when it is cold outside.

Don't wash or swim after sunbath for an hour, avoid soap and detergents on your body, these will leach the D3 and age your skin.

I have not heard that before.

Research has shown that bodies lacking vitamin D have more than double the risk of dying from heart disease than their vitamin D-rich counterparts. One reason for the lack of vitamin D in their system could be from lack of outdoor activity.

Evidence has shown those with vitamin D3 deficiencies at high risk of serious complication when exposed to flu or influenza virus.

I was made aware of the importance of getting enough D in the past few years from Dr. Michael Eades' book "Protein Power Life Plan".

Here's another site with vitamin D info which supports the notion that getting enough vitamin D3 helps fight the flu (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/)

Our bodies need vitamin D to help keep our bones healthy. Vitamin D helps children build strong bones and prevent the bone disease rickets. What makes vitamin D unique is that it is a vitamin and also a hormone your body can make from the sun. Vitamin D has a number of important roles in the body, including immune regulation and nerve transmission. Vitamin D is also found in a small number of foods. There are: oily fish – such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel, red meat, liver, egg yolks. Another source of vitamin D is dietary supplements. I usually eat this food, but I also take vitamin D 3 in solution.

In simple terms vitamin D3 is the project manager of the immune system.